Commander in chief obama announce thursday week he will send 300 300 advisors to iraq. Since launching an offensive in late may, isis has taken control of iraqs largest city. Its goal is to create an independent sunni dominated country spanning parts of syria and iraq governed by strict islamic law. Obama also called on Nouri Al Maliki as well as iraq shiite majority as a prelude to retaking control of western iraq. The alternative . Iraq could descend into civil war hitting its rival and religious groups against each other. Mr. Obama might have asked joe biden. In 2006, biden o one for the sunni dominated west, one for the Kurdish North and one for the shiite dominated south and east but all within the same nation state. Given the latest flair in violence, achieving that political resolution may be difficult. But if maliki can create a government that promises more autonomy to iraqs minorities, the iraqi army may be motivated to retake mosul. Alqaeda and iraq dominated. With American Military assistance isis might then be driven out of iraq. Question, how realistic is this scenario and is Nouri Al Maliki apt to make it happening . I dont think we can put humptydumpty together again, to be honest. I dont think the government has the confidence or ability to unite the people or get folks behind them. The sunni triangle and kurgistan again. The United States of america is not going to put in what would be required scores of thousands of american troops to bring this country together militarily. Should the country do you think theyll decide to come together diplomatically . I doubt it. Theres too much blood been shed. I think the reality is it has been broken apart and nobodys going to put it back together. Is the goal to establish an independent sunni state . I think the goal of the sunnis, all of them including isil is to be out of the regime and they are supported in that by the saudis. If it is the goal, it wont work. Eleanor. Anyone who grew up with the vietnam generation, when you hear youre sending advisors in, you get nervous. I think its clear the president is doing the least he can do to try to assist in repelling isis from baghdad. And the truth is that the shiite military is probably going to be able to repel isis on its own from baghdad. If you look at the areas isis has taken in iraq, theyre basically the sunni heart land. It began when president bush was in office. Remember all the ethnic cleansing that went on then . Baghdad used to be an integrated city. Its now 80 percent shiite. Maliki doesnt care about the area. And the kurds are perfectly happy in their part of the country. Maliki won the most seats in the election. He still stands a good chance of emerging on top and they dont have to love each other. They just have to quit actively killing each other. If they dont decide to do that, American Military power is not going to be able to prevent their civil war. Maliki has been in power already since 2006. Hes had 12 years to form a unity government. It hasnt happened. Pump more weapons into the hands of his dictator style government. The idea of a mortician that was thrown around by joe biden and leslie gelb a decade ago, may be a good idea then. At this point we would have to look at what that partition would mean. The other potential oil wealth area is in the north. What the sunnies control at this point is a stretch of disorder without massive oil potential, without any oil potential. How are you going to break that wealth up evenly in a partitioned state that only inflames the divisions more than they are. Democrats in the senate tried to embrace this plan. The reason there was never momentum for it is because polls at the time found the iraqis didnt want it. I think were in a very serious situation here. There are Strategic Interests of the United States at risk here. One of them is the issue of oil and that is something that could affect that region and all the western economies. We just cant stand by and let this whole thing unravel. There are no easy answers to this thing. I dont think its going to be possible to reform all these governments. Its just the the conflict is so deep and so long, its hard for me to imagine how the shiites and the sunnies get together. Its not going to be an easy solution. Chinese history gloss. A broad side from former Vice President cheney and his daughter appeared in wednesdays wall street journal. In 1983, Ronald Reagan said if history teaches us anything, it teaches that simple minded appeasement or Wishful Thinking about our adversaries is folly. President obama is on track to securing his legacy as the man who betrayed our past and squandered our freedom, unquote. Question is is it unprecedented for a former Vice President to criticize a sitting president like this . Is it below the belt . I dont think he should be critiqued on that level. I think we should ask why somebody who was so wrong in 2003 expected to have any credibility today. His major beef is they didnt keep a residual force in iraq after the war ended in 2011. Why didnt they . Ir was so empowered by the invasion of iraq, iran told maliki i dont want americans in there. Over a period of years. So i think cheney is just off on some other planet and hes going to get his come upance from his own party. Listen to rand paul. Quote, the tragedy unfolding in iraq today is only part of the story. Alqaeda is its affiliates are resurgent across the globe. According to a recent study, between 2012 and 20 thirty three, there was an increase in jihadist groups around the world. Obama is busy rushing american adversaries in the middle east. President obama seems determined to leave Office Taking america down a notch. The truth is if the war dick cheney and George W Bush and the neocons brought to this country i dont think obamas responsible for it. I do think the country agrees we ought to get out of afghanistan. We ought to stay out of ukraine. Theres no doubt this is all coming down on his watch. But i think its odd that they would try to blame obama for something he didnt start. Its not odd. Its opportunistic. He sees an opportunity to vindicate the biggest blunder the American Administration has made in memory with the invasion of iraq. U. S. Invading a Muslim Country its going to be a cake walk with flours. Its going to be a great model for the world. It might be offensive that this came from dick cheney, somebody who basically profited immensely off of the military adventurism in iraq. There are points in the wall street journal. One of them was this idea of spreading black flag waving al qaeda kill in the name of god jihadism that is in the middle of iraq right now. This administration has rhetorically soft posture, a difficult time explaining this. What they have did is theyve done an aggressive Drone Campaign over the last 5 years, remote controlled missiles to kill suspected terrorists. Its a good question. This is the way the wall street journal played tup. This is the top of the page and its devoted to dick cheney and his daughter liz. Wednesday, it couldnt have been bigger and its probably an endorsement from the journal. Would you agree with that . Dick cheney, i like the guy, hes a friend. But from the beginning, i thought it was wrong. Exit question. In an interview on cnn with larry king 4 years ago, joe biden said iraq should be one of the greatest achievements of the Obama Administration. Is that the case . The president campaigned saying he was going to end wars. He ended the war. Were not going to start it up again. I wouldnt call it a great achievement. Campaigning and saying youre going to end the war and actually ending the war are two different things. There are big responsibilities that come with pulling troops out of a region. We shouldnt be responding by we got our troops out, lets pump more weaponry into iraq and arm the iraqi government. I think the American People want us to stay out, but i think the American People want the government to look at what is the interest of being here . What can we do to help . I credit the administration for having the discipline for pushing back against lets immediately mill tarrize this. Its not going to help our economy. Im worried about that as well. Are you worried about that . I am worried about that. I would go back to the question you raised before. Frankly the role of the president is to deal with the National Interests of the country. Whatever the campaign was, its not the issue. Hes the president of the United States. He has to protect the long term issue interests of the United States. That involves the world of oil. So this is something you just cant walk away from because you had a campaign or because the American Public doesnt want it. This is the role of the president. Hes not walking away from it. Suggested the role of the president of the United States was far bigger than the way youve explained it. Yes. He did. Yes. A far bigger role. Yes. We all know what happens during campaigns. This is now becoming a big political fight. We blame dick cheney, we blame the republicans. Right now were in where we are. That whole part of the world is a huge player in the world of energy and energy supplies. We cannot walk away from it. Suggests there is a disaster. If there is a blame game going on between the parties, it suggests this is a gathering disaster and that is exactly right. I dont have a cure and i dont know whos got a cure for how we get its going to become a pocketbook issue. When cheneys open ed was followed up by another one by paul paul is making an argument against cheney interventionist okay. Issue 2. The fog of war. We want to know who was behind it, what the motivation of the leaders and the attackers happen to be. There are still some unanswered questions. It was after all the fog of war. U. S. Special forces captured one of the most wanted this week, a leading suspect in the 2012 benghazi murders of navy seals fiown woods and glen doherty. He is now being questioned on board the uss new york enroute to the u. S. Where the attorney general says he will be tried in a civilian court. Last year, katala was charged with 3 federal crimes in connection with the benghazi attack murder, aiding terrorists, and a weapons offense. Is this a high stakes trial for the Obama Administration . Yeah. At this point, who knows whats going to come out of this thing . This does not look good. The whole way this thing was handled did not inspire the confidence of the country. The way the arrest was hired does not inspire the rest of the country . I think it was a daring raid where they captured him. After two years of the right grousing about, theyre saying the capture was timed to coincide with hillarys book tour and they want him to go to guantanamo. We have several high profile terrorists in american jails for life. Its appropriate that he gets tried here. Great. But its only a massive circus trial if the administration wants to make it into one. There are far higher profile people in custody including moham ed, the master mind of another 9 11 attack that still has not been tried. Hes being held and is maybe going to be tried why not focus on that trial right now. Why not focus on the guy we just caught . How is it katala was walking the streets as an ordinary civilian for several weeks before he was apprehended . More than that, he was being interviewed by reporters and things. They wanted to find a time when he was isolated and alone. They wanted to grab him without alerting the Libyan Government all the rest of it. What theyre going to get out of him is a lot of information. Theres a possibility this guy could say we plotted this, we did that, is there any video around there. And it can only be bad news or nothing news for Hillary Clintons ambitions. I dont think it affects hillary one bit and if it answers questions, puts things to rest, thats all to the good for her. Is katala in control of the narrative . Not any more. You dont think so . You mean theyre going to i think theyve been talking to him for a long time and hes probably pretty tired right now, john. Exit question, considering all the possible outcomes of open trial, is the [ indiscernible ] a net positive, neutral, or net negative for Hillary Clintons ambitions . It cannot be beneficial. Its neutral to negative depending what he has to say. If he has something of relevance to say about people coming to aiand the rest of it the only possibility is its negative. What would he have to say about that . You listen i mean, the point is he might have said we planned the attack and did this and says all these things we should have known about. And everybody sat on their rifles and let us go in. I think hillary is going to persevere through this just fine. We have the shoe bomber, the times square bomber. Most americans dont even remember these trials, so this is an appropriate use of american justice. The latest wall street journal says most is that serious . You only need 50 plus one. Shes doing fine. Shes sinking in the polls. She looks like she has a pretty clear field for the democratic nomination. Who were the republicans going to put up . That is going to be a much more interesting primary race. Is she a deeply polarizing candidate . She is a deeply credible candidate. I think the democrat is a shoe in it will be nice to see the benghazi subject go into a trial in a court and hopefully not be politicized to the level it has been under investigation in the house of representatives. Dream on. I think Hillary Clinton is about as slam dunk a candidate for the Democratic Party you mean shes going to win the election . Shes going to win the nomination. She will attract millions of people into her tent to vote for her because she will be the first woman to be nominated by either major party and thats going to have enormous appeal. Issue 3. Jay walks. White House Press Secretary jay carny was greeted by music from his favorite band. That was good rock and roll, as if you didnt know. Mr. Cannys last day at that podium was wednesday. The announcement of his leaving came as a surprise last month, made by president obama himself who suddenly entered the White House PressBriefing Room to proclaim that carny was at last moving on. In april, jay came to me in the oval office and said he was thinking of moving on and i was not thrilled to say the least. But jays had to wrestle with this decision for quite some time. Hes been on team since day one. And there was a hug between barack and jay. He thanked the white house correspondents with whom he often riddled. Finally i want to say thank you to all of you here. This has been an extraordinary experience and i have loved every minute of every day, even the many minutes of many days i spent in this room. As i think most of you now understand and believe, its always a pleasure, no matter how hard it can get in here, how hot it can sometimes be and contentious it sometimes is. As jay canny slips back into oblivion, will he take his chair in the Mclaughlin Group in order to restore his ego . I think jay carny did a tough job. He did a workman like job. Its not like the days of jim agarty. In the old days its a rough situation. Its been that since ron ziglar was in the nixon white house. Its tough on these guys. Some of the best jody powell is one of the best. Hes no longer with us. Its a very tough job. I admire the guys that can go out there and take it. I was offered a position like that and i lasted about 24 hours. Do you know a press secretary who did a biography of his ron nelson. Did he write a book on ford . He probably did. But who could say anything negative about jerry ford . Even though he was not elected president. I think he had the widespread i think larry speaks wrote a book. And to Say Something about jay, i cant remember a single gas that he made and that is really something. When hes up on that tight rope every day in front of television cameras. He kept his cool most of the time. He went from here at the request of the Vice President. 4 years for biden. 4 years for biden. That was a great preparation. He had the right temperament. He had a wonderful temperament. It was hard for him to get involved with a frakus with the press. I dont know that he slips into oblivion. Hes been rumored that he might be named as ambassador to russia. I dont think thats going to happen. He brought that up at a Christian Science monitor breakfast and said that he turn today down. He was offer today . He was offered it. Thats impressive he turned it down. Its a major loss for this administration. Hes one of the few people in the Communications Team in this white house who knew what he was doing. How you replace that and where it goes from here for the next two years josh ernest is a fine replacement. Lets give him a chance. Richard nixon built that Briefing Room. The old thing was in the west wing of the white house and had those old guys sleeping in there and playing cards. Mixon built that and the old white house swimming pool. Predictions will the redskins change their names . No, they will not. Yes, double yes. Yes. Double yes . Yes, theyre going to change the name. At a future date, byebye. R this week on moyers and company lets look at what afghanistan has achieved. Is the region becoming more stable . Is it becoming more democratic . If the answer is yes, then lets keep trying. But if the answer to those questions is no, then maybe its time for us to recognize that this larger military project is failing and is not going to succeed simply by rying harder. Funding is provided by ann gumowitz, carnegnegie corporati and the advancement of International Peace and security